Thursday, January 31, 2013

  Oldest working computer: WITCH computer breaks Guinness world record (VIDEO)

LONDON, UK -- Built for the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Oxfordshire, The Harwell Dekatron, nicknamed WITCH, at the National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, first run in 1951; recently restored and now on display in the UK's National Museum of Computing, it sets the new world record for the Oldest working digital computer, according to the World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/.

  Photo: The Harwell Dekatron computer nicknamed WITCH has been recognized as the world's oldest original working digital computer. ( enlarge photo )

Guinness World Records also recognized the The Harwell Dekatron as the world's oldest working digital computer.

The Guinness world record for the Oldest analog computer was set by the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old Mechanism which was discovered in 1900–01 in a shipwreck close to the Greek island of Antikythera. It is a collection of bronze gears encrusted with sea accretions, built with a mechanical complexity that has not been demonstrated in any other object prior to the 14th century. It is regarded as the oldest analog computer and is believed to have been able to predict eclipses.

  The wall-sized calculator - also known as the WITCH computer - held the record for being the planet's oldest operative computer for several years before it was decommissioned in 1973.
  Last year's reboot brought the ancient ticker back to life and allowed it to regain its title. It took three years of work by volunteers to restore the huge machine to its full working glory.

  The Harwell Dekatron, at the National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, first run in 1951.

  Design and construction of the 6ft 6in (2m) high and 19ft 8in (6m) wide machine known as the Witch, began in 1949. The 2.5 tonne computer took up to 10 seconds to multiply two numbers but was reliable and often ran for 80 hours a week.

  With 828 Dekatron tubes - used to build chains of counters and frequency dividers - and 480 relays and a user interface of 199 lamps, the whirring machine is a useful teaching tool, according to The National Museum of Computing where the beast nows lives and computes.

  Kevin Murrell, one of the museum's trustees, said: "This was at a time when computers weren't really expected to work for more than five or 10 minutes without breaking.

 "Today the fully-functioning computer is proving invaluable in teaching our stream of educational groups about their computing heritage."